User:Fire lily445/Rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel

Rock-cut tombs increased in frequency during the late iron age II -- starting in the 9th century BCE and exploding particularly in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.

It has been proposed that the form and rapid increase in popularity of these tombs was in response to threats to the "unity and cohenrence" of the be'tab--the extended family

___ proposes that the form and rapid increase in popularity of these tombs was a response to these threats, and represented an attempt to preserve the be'tab through forming it in stone.

LAYOUT

Tombs typically had four rooms and followed same plan houses of the time period. They typically included a dromos, or entry-way, through which the tomb was accessed via a descending staircase. Following was an internment room, where the deceased's remains were lain out on stone benches to decompose. A repository served as an ossuary and secondary burial sight to house the remains of the newly deceased with those of ancestors passed. The repository also served to receive offerings to the deceased. The chambers of common rock-tombs were about 2.5m x 3m and laid out sequentially; however some had a more complex architecture of clustered and adjoining chambers--with the level of complexity relating to social status.

Tombs were built in specially designated areas that were outside of the settlements. They are often located just outside this boundary, and for this reason it is believed that they functioned as territorial markers as well.

Rock-cut tombs typically served as the resting place for many generations of an extended family, known as a be'tab. However there are some exceptional cases of individual burials.

It is noteworthy that within the tombs there are not distinctintions indicating a difference in treatment between male or female and young or old. Some scholars take this as evidence of egalitarian principles of Judah society, while others argue that it only represents ideals and not realities, as Judah society was strongly patriarchal.

Beit She'arim
The ruins of Beit She'arim (or Sheikh Abrekh in arabic) in the Galilee preserve a vast necropolis with catacombs containing a large number of rock-cut Jewish tombs from the late 2nd to 6th centuries CE. The ancient city of Besara, or Beit She'arim, was located near what is now the modern town of Tivon. According to various sources, it was one of the most highly desired burial places for Jews in the ancient world, second only to the Mount of Olives in its desirability. This prestige is attributed to Beit She'arim being named as the burial place of Yehuda HaNasi (Judah the Prince), and is supported by its having the "highest concentration of graphite associated with late ancient Levantine Jewish populations." There are a total of 21 excavated catacombs currently excavated, though some experts estimate the remaining undiscovered remains could number in the hundreds or even thousands, with as much as two-thirds of the catacombs geographic spread remaining to be explored.

The tombs are carved into caves in the surrounding hills of the city. Renowned for their beauty, the entrances are guarded by massive stone doors which were modeled from ornate wooden doors and were able to turn on their own axis.

The graves are widely considered to be exceptional to the region, but others note that many of the death practices present are consistent with conventional Levantine practices.

"conclusively contains the highest concentration of burials associated with Jewish populations in the Levant from the Roman and Byzantine periods" (86)

As a highly sought after destination for burial, Beit She'arim interred remains from far reaching areas of the ancient world. There is evidence of individuals from areas around Beirut, Sidon, Palmyra, Messene, and Hiymar explicitely citing their wish to be buried in Beit She'arim, leading it to be viewed as an international destination for Jewish populations, though some scholars dispute this claim.

The tombs at Beit She'arim offer a diverse array of burial techniques and death practices.

I plan to add to the Beit She'arim section, largely with information from this article

"This last point, in turn, leads to a third conclusion: that even in Beit Shearim, a cemetery with strong and documented links to populations of rabbis and patriarchs (whether of Talmudic, alternative, or complementary orientation), works of Jewish commemorators and inscribers reflect understandings about death, corpse contagion, and commemorative practice with closer ties to regional non‑Jewish behavior than to rabbinic textual prescription." 4

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 08:53:56.

"While the cemetery is sometimes described as being regionally exceptional, it exhibits many features (with respect to burial architecture, personal names of the deceased, iconography, and language use), entirely conventional for contemporaneous Levantine mortuary complexes." 8

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 08:55:13.

situated by the modern town of Tivon in the southwestern Galilee of modern Israel. Excavations of the area revealed a late ancient settlement with a synagogue and domestic structures, but the retroactive fame of Beit Shearim owes exclusively to its necropolis.

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 08:58:46.

Subterranean catacombs, carved into the hills just below the ancient town, are among the most visually arresting of their period and region. Arched gates decorate several cave entrances (figure 2.2). Entryways are guarded by elaborate stone doors, which mimic wooden analogues and still pivot in their original sockets.

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 08:59:15.

Subterranean chambers of the cemetery burrow through two acres of limestone and sandstone and contain the mortuary remains of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals. Indeed, one of the most impressive features of the necropolis remains its potential geographic scope; some speculate that more than two‑thirds of the cemetery remains unexcavated beneath Tivon’s rolling hills (Map 3).

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 08:59:43.

Earliest formal explorations of ancient Beit Shearim, or Sheikh Abreikh in Arabic, began in the late nineteenth century. British Lieutenants Condor and Kitchener surveyed and sketched some of the associated caves, which they first published in their Survey of Western Palestine I in 1881. Partly due to contingencies of international and regional politics, however, the Beit Shearim necropolis grew increasingly prominent after its rediscovery during the British Mandate period in Palestine in the 1930s. In 1936, the British initiated official excavations of the site, which Benyamin Maisel (Mazar) directed in the 1930s and Nahman Avigad led in the 1950s. 10 Both surveyors and archaeologists collectively identified thirty‑three burial caves in the area, which contained the largest concentration of human remains from the region and period.

Stern, Karen B.. Writing on the Wall : Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pitt-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5377811.

Created from pitt-ebooks on 2020-10-15 09:00:28.